Looking beneath the surface

March 21, 2007

I got home last night after an unusual journey - everything went as it should!

Even better, as I sauntered into the departure lounge at Heathrow after a nice breakfast at the Maple Leaf Lounge, the man at the desk took away ny boarding card and gave me a new one. I had been upgraded to First. I ate and drank my way home in luxury.

The crew were wondeful. The flight arrived on time. The folks at immigration were all in a very jolly mood and my flight to PEI was on time and flawless. My luggage made it too.

The only fly in the ointment - in England spring is nearly over. Here it seems that winter has returned with the so called first day of spring.

March 14, 2007

Well after weeks of travel hell - the most straightforward experience travelling last night to the UK. there were only 2 of us on the Beech to Halifax - like having my private plane. Then a bulkhead set with no one on my left on the way over. Arrived on time and with hand luggage was out the door of Heathrow in 10 minutes of the door opening.

My only gripe - first was a third full. The system upgrade will not apply to a Low fare economy ticket - that is all I book - so unless I don't understand, I will never be able to get an upgrade even though I am a legit frequent flyer.

It is like summer here. The daffs are nearly over and James tells me that in Hampshire the season is about 2 weeks early.

February 19, 2007

About 700,000 people of Indian origin live in Canada and yet Air Canada claim that they have tried and failed to make the route to Delhi work.

Air Canada's decision to kill the only direct
flight to India in favour of expanding service to China has provoked
anger in the Indo-Canadian business community.

The Canadian
national airline confirmed Friday it would be discontinuing all direct
flights between Toronto and New Delhi in early May - a cost-cutting
move, the company said, brought on by declining sales for the route.

The airline currently flies the route every day, the only non-stop flight between Canada and India.

The
decision has angered many in the Indo-Canadian business community who
claim the move is short-sighted and that empty seats would soon be
filled due to India's mushrooming economy.

'This was a big bridge
between the two countries that has been snapped,' Kim Rathee, president
of the Canada-India Business Council told the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC).

Earlier this month, Air Canada announced it
would add a second daily flight to Beijing from Vancouver and increase
the regularity of its Toronto-Shanghai route for a total of five daily
flights between the two countries. The planes for the new flights are
being diverted from the Toronto-India route.

Rathee told the
Toronto Star daily newspaper that he was puzzled by the decision in
light of a recent push by the Canadian government for companies to
explore doing business with India.

'It's a lousy decision,' he
was quoted as saying. 'It's a huge setback to the Canada-India business
momentum because Air Canada was a very visible symbol of cooperation
and business between the two countries.'

There is often a moment when Bugs gets fed up with constant annoyance from an adversary and he proclaims the threat "Of you realize that this means war!"

The adversary laughs this off - after all Bugs is only a rabbit.

Guess who loses in the end?

Well Air Canada "Of course you realize that this means war!"

I am supposedly off to Boston today - having taken 24 hours to get from DC to home last weekend - my flight was meant to leave at 6am today. It has been canceled. In theory, I get out at 3pm today and should arrive at 9.20pm tonight. If they fail here - I will not be able to get out at all as there is no seat available for a week now.

Now delays happen all the time - my beef is about capacity. I have a structural beef.

One of the reasons that I had to drive from Moncton on Saturday is that there were no seats available to PEI until Monday. I would not have been able to fly home in spite of their error the entire weekend. The Atlantic system, and PEI in particular, is undeserved.

Jazz, who are the AC Connector are flying completely full. There are no seats out of PEI for a week. This is with Westjet who are flying a full 737 every day. In effect, if you don't book at least a week or 10 days in advance, you cannot get in or out of PEI. If something goes wrong - in winter it happens all the time - then you are stuck. In effect, Air Canada is locking us out of the world.

People cannot get here and we can't get out. We are in an Air Canada jail. They have restricted capacity in spite of high loads. We are now driving great loads. We are a real opportunity.

They have the capacity but choose not to apply it. Their flights from Montreal to Quebec City fly hourly and are half full.

What does this mean for us?

In Europe there has been a travel driven economic revolution. Small places like PEI have been linked by cheap air travel to major centres. People who used to live and work in London now commute from villages in Spain or Italy. Small European towns are now connected to the world and are reviving. As their sons moved to the cities, now City dwellers are moving to the villages.

It is possible to live in Carcassonne and have your job in London. You gain the Carcassonne lifestyle and still have complete access to London. Small places like PEI are having money and life pumped back into them because of the Internet and air travel.

This can happen on PEI. We can have our sons and daughters leave for a while but also have people come and invest in us in return - creating a place that our children can return too. But not if we do not have enough air capacity.

Air Canada is hurting not just poor old Rob but all of PEI.

We are being punished. Doing business with PEI is being made too challenging for most to cope with. Air Canada is in effect putting us under blockade. Why? Because we worked with Westjet to add more capacity here. We acted in our own interests and we are being made to pay.

The stakes are high for us here on PEI. We have to attract the new creatives to come and live and to work here. They are the people that will ensure that we have a viable society. If they don't come here, our kids will leave and we will be left as a seniors home.

This news article says in effect that Europeans are now looking at Atlantic Canada as a place to live and to invest in.

Here are some prices from Ryanair dated Feb 19. This is what has changed the destiny of places like PEI in Europe. Small town Europe faces the same demographic pressure as does PEI. They too are losing their young. But many places are being renewed by the creative worker who now can live anywhere - provided that they have access to air and to the web.

The key strategy is to have a vibrant air bridge. We have not only to break the blockade but we have to build bigger bridges to the outside world. So what could we do?

The Ryanair model works like this. They partner with the cities they serve. The cities recognize that access has a value and they share this with the carrier. Our future depends on us having an influx of the kind of people tat will invest in us and who want to have what we truly are. We need people to come here that share our values and embrace our way of life. Thousands of them live in Europe.

Until now the European model has been confined to Europe. But PEI could be the bridge. Halifax and Moncton are prisoners of Air Canada - if they were to cut the deal, they would be punished by Air Canada. But we are already in the woodshed. We can open up Summerside - we can make PEI Summerside a tax free zone. Summerside is free from fog and can hanger a 747. The runway is full size. We have a unique structural asset.

Imagine what $100 one way flight to Europe might do to PEI? Imagine what this would do for tourism? Imagine what this would do for business? Imagine what this would do for Westjet? Imagine what this would do to Air Canada!!!!!

Make this a political issue - Pat and Robert - please carry the torch - the rest of us help Pat and Robert see that this is a key issue

Negotiate the first transatlantic air bridge with some one like Ryanair. We can use Summerside

Negotiate with Westjet the feed system

Create a tax free zone at Summerside

Make this a mainstream media issue - hello CBC!!!!

Make every effort to fly Westjet and not Air Canada

In particular, when you fly long haul - fly anyone but Air Canada - this is where you hurt them the most

If you are a blogger - make this your issue too

We can do this. If we do, then we take PEI back to where we were before Confederation. Before Confederation PEI had close direct ties with Britain, the Caribbean and the Boston States. We lost this independence and became a backwater as the price of joining Canada.

We can become the Hong Kong of the Atlantic seaboard. It takes only the will and the work. It's not that high a hill and think of how much fun it will be to gain our place in the world back.